Chapter 9
Apology of the Pastors of the Desert.
AN extraordinary circumstance, in the spring of 1719, enabled the Reformed to prove their loyalty to their monarch. An alliance had been lately formed, between England, Holland and France, to oppose the King of Spain, who was aiming at universal dominion. Cardinal Alberoni, the Spanish Minister of State, strove to make a diversion from his own country by inciting an insurrection in France, and to this end, made advances towards the Huguenots, to whom he promised his full support, if they would revolt.
Alarming tidings reached Paris that the Protestants had flown to arms, at the instigation of Spain. The Duke of Orleans was greatly dismayed at this report. Another Camisard rising would, he knew, be ruinous at this stage of affairs, obliging him to send part of his forces to Languedoc, just when he needed all to make a bold front against the Spanish foe. He feared that such a rebellion might take some years to suppress, as in the preceding reign, and what policy to adopt, so as to check it at the outset, he knew not.
In this dilemma, the Regent conceived the astounding idea of appealing for support in his authority to some of the very Protestant pastors, whom France was still systematically seeking to exterminate.
Pictet and Basnage, two celebrated pastors in different foreign lands, received each a special embassage from the French court, imploring them so to work on the consciences of their co-religionists in France, as to induce them to submit to government.
Benedict Pictet we have already mentioned as Roger’s wise counselor in the days of his youth. Notwithstanding the opposition of the Papists, his writings had spread into France, where they had been much used of God, his theology being drawn direct from the Bible, and from the knowledge of the Person of the living Son of God. Of rare gifts and true piety, he was well calculated to bias the minds of others for good, and his influence with the Reformed in general was well-known.
Jacques Basnage was a yet more renowned man, though of a different type—of greaten grasp of intellect, but not of so much spirituality his influence was far more extended, embracing nations rather than individuals. Voltaire sap of him, “He was more fit to be a minister of state than a minister of a parish.”
The two pastors, in answer to the Regent’s appeal, wrote at once authoritatively to the Huguenots. Evidently the government considered the letter of the politician, Basnage, as the more weighty, for they had it published immediately, and distributed broadcast throughout the land. The greater part of the counsels therein contained were excellent; but the writer, in his position of ease and power, hardly realized what his brethren “sous la croix” were either doing or suffering, though he expressed much sympathy for them. He evidently thought it the bounden duty of all the pastors to quit France in obedience to the word of the king, as commanded at the revocation, and even hinted that those who were still there were acting in insubordination.
The preachers, who had nobly rejected all the tempting overtures of Spain, were deeply pained at this unexpected blow from such a quarter. Antoine Court was deputed to pen an answer in the name of all. In this document they thoroughly repudiate all connection with the Camisards, adding that they were not animated by the spirit of revolt, but by the spirit of peace. We give it in part: ―
“In the Desert, 30th July, 1719.
“We are obliged to acknowledge that our sins are the cause of all our misfortunes; but we do not know whether it was an absolute decree from God or a permission (which in certain cases does not justify our conduct) that all the pastors should abandon their flocks. We believe that many have wept between the porch and the altar, and that their vows and their sighs have mounted up to heaven. But after what Jesus Christ has said on the duty of a good shepherd, ought not many (God forbid that we should speak of all) to have shed, not their tears only, but their blood for their sheep? We are determined, by the grace of our Lord, until our latest breath to render unto Caesar the things that are Cæsar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s. Our assemblies are not tumultuous; none carry arms―they are strictly forbidden, not only under penalty of being guilty of human high treason, but of divine. The glory of God should be the one object of all, and the love of our Saviour the motive power of all that we say or do.
“Being in this land deprived of ministry, if God had not raised up some persons to revive the faith of the people, and to reanimate their zeal, it is certain that all the inhabitants of the country, and the greater part of those of the towns, would have fallen into such gross ignorance that no doubt they would have become like those among whom superstition reigns supreme. God, notwithstanding our sins, would not utterly forsake us. After having removed His candlestick into other lands, He has breathed in our country on some smoking brands for the consolation of many.
“We will not attempt to refute the objections of such who, in approving the zeal of those who announce the gospel, yet disapprove of holding assemblies. We do not know how these gentlemen would manage the matter. Let us suppose for a moment that five or six shepherds have thirty or forty thousand sheep dispersed over a vast region. Would it be possible for those shepherds to feed so many sheep, if they did not gather them into little flocks so as to give them what is needful for their nourishment? We do not deny the fact that this should be done with the greatest possible prudence, and in places the most sheltered from the fury of the persecutors; indeed, we act so thoroughly upon it, that for one assembly that is discovered, a hundred take place, without the knowledge of our enemies. It is true that some houses and barns have been razed to the ground; some persons have been condemned to the galleys; many have been put in prison; very few have suffered death. But is it to be ignored that there is ever a cross attached to the profession of the gospel? And let it be taken into account that thousands and thousands of people are edified who are yet exempt from these trials.
“Before concluding our letter, we protest again to all those whom it may concern, and we take heaven and earth to witness that we desire to render to our prince all that is his due, but we do not feel ourselves free to neglect, for even a short time, our salvation, nor that of our brethren. It is vain to allege to us the state of affairs in the kingdom. We must at all times serve God and obey His laws, were but thirty days interruption commanded, as in the days of Daniel.”
Thus touchingly does this brave band apologize for holding for God a position that brought them into jeopardy every hour.
Ere Basnage had received this answer, feeling himself unable, in his far-off land of exile, to further take up the matter, he pointed out to the government one who could do so―the young pastor, Antoine Court. A special deputation was at once sent to the outlawed preacher, who had for long been hunted as a partridge on the mountains, and whose whereabouts would not now have been discovered without the information given by Basnage.
At the beginning of August, to Court’s great astonishment, the royal messenger appeared, and transmitted to him a packet enclosing Pictet’s letter, exhorting to fidelity to the crown, which the government strongly advised.
Court assured the deputy of the loyalty of himself and his fellow pastors, and of the devotion of all the Protestants to the king, declaring that long ago they had rejected all Alberoni’s advances.
The Regent, with assumed gratitude, which but badly disguised the jealousy he felt of Court’s influence, offered him a large pension, with permission to leave France, carrying his possessions with him. At the sametime he offered Basnage the restitution of all his goods, with leave to return to his native country. These favors were alike rejected. The aged pastor preferred remaining in exile with the flock of his adoption, and the young one chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.
As the wonderful tidings of these negotiations with government spread through France, the hearts of the long down-trodden Protestants beat high with renewed hope. Hardly could they realize that such news could be true. Alas! they were again to prove how vain is the trust in princes.
As months passed by Spain was conquered, and the threatened danger averted. The Government having, therefore, nothing to fear from the Huguenots, made no amelioration in their condition.
The sorely-disappointed pastors continued toiling patiently on, thanking God when, at rare intervals, a fresh worker was added to their little band. Thus, in the following year, Roger welcomed gladly a new traveling pupil―Paul Faure, who, at the age of fifteen, left home and friends to consecrate his life to the ministry of the gospel―his fearless young spirit in no wise discouraged by fresh instances of persecution.
The ever-recurring trouble of marriages solemnized in the desert much exercised Roger’s mind. He who, for the Lord’s sake and the gospel’s, had denied himself the joy of wife and family, did not seek to induce others to take a similar path, but pressed upon them the importance of not marring their testimony, by professing to abjure their faith, so as to obtain the sanction of the Church of Rome to their marriages, In earlier times the Protestants had been married by their own pastors; but, being deprived at the revocation of all their rights, this hail become unlawful. Protestantism, from henceforth, had no legal existence in France: the reformed, by royal decree, had been converted to Roman Catholicism, and now, as good Catholics, they could only marry according to the laws of Church and State. All other marriage was null and void, and the offspring consequently illegitimate. The priests, ere they consented to marry the Huguenots, extorted from them a solemn and detailed abjuration of their faith, in which they renounced their baptism, declared they considered their parents to be damned, vowed to attend mass, and never again to return to their own assemblies, even if the free exercise of their religion were to be allowed by the king. After having obtained this abjuration, the priests would still defer the ceremony from six months to a year, to fully test the sincerity of the applicants. The Protestants were thus either compelled to perjure themselves or to marry in the desert, in defiance of the law, and so become outcasts of society. Many a true heart chose the latter alternative, and suffered the bitter consequences.
Roger, seeing the frightful evils resulting from this law, ventured to write on the subject to the Governor of Crest, and this letter was forwarded to the Court at Versailles.
The only apparent result of this effort was to draw increased attention to himself, the enemy making renewed efforts for his capture. Fontanieu, the intendant of Grenoble, reported him to be “one of the most celebrated of all the preachers,” and offered a heavy reward to any who would discover his retreat. Some Protestants were found base enough to consent to betray their pastor on his return to Dauphine, for he was supposed to be still lingering in Vivarais, whither he was known to have turned his steps after the disastrous events of the valley of Bourdeaux. Counting on his continued absence, Fontanieu appealed for further troops to be sent into Dauphine, hoping that the increased danger would deter Roger from entering the province, and that, deprived of the pastor’s care, an easy victory would be gained over his flock. “We may thus reckon,” he added, “on the whole of Dauphine being tranquillized. Apparently Jacques has not returned, perhaps, having had warning of all the precautions that have been taken to track him.”
However, notwithstanding all the intendant’s watchfulness, “Jacques” (Roger’s nom de geurre) was actually again in his old scenes of labor. He had, indeed, on leaving Bourdeaux, spent a long time in Vivarais, making the most of this opportunity to strengthen the hands of the brave and youthful Durand, who took the lead for God in patient labor in that province.